


Cold Snap

by Rapis_Razuri



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Attraction, Dimileth Week (Fire Emblem), F/M, Fluff, Ice Skating, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), no beta we die like Glenn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:08:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27003262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rapis_Razuri/pseuds/Rapis_Razuri
Summary: “You know, Professor,” he said and his voice sounded way, way closer to her ear than it should be. “I always wondered if there’s anything you can’t do.”It was cold, so it only makes sense that her cheeks would feel a bit funny. Right?The fishing pond has frozen over. Dimitri teaches Byleth how to ice skate.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 30
Kudos: 102





	Cold Snap

**Author's Note:**

> Dimileth Week 2020: Day 2 - May Our Hands Cling Forevermore

The fishing pond was all frozen over.

It may be just a yearly occurrence at the monastery. It had been snowing a lot lately and growing colder by the day, but for Byleth, it was her first time seeing such a large body of water iced over as she and her father avoided the northern regions of Fódlan during the winter months.

Maybe the only reason why Byleth had taken notice was because of how little the dropping temperatures seemed to matter to her students. In fact, some of them were downright excited.

“Ohh! Do you think the ice is thick enough to skate on, Professor?”

_Skate on?_

Byleth contemplated for a moment. She did not want to curb Annette’s enthusiasm, but did not want her to get hurt in case it wasn’t either. Not knowing what else to do, she unsheathed the Sword of the Creator and gave the surface of a hard poke.

There wasn’t that much force behind the gesture and yes, maybe using a Hero’s Relic was a little excessive for such a petty task, but the ice gave way easily to Annette’s disappointment.

She always did hate disappointing her students, so she decided to bring the matter to the archbishop’s attention. Byleth wasn’t quite sure what she was expecting there, but Rhea merely exchanged a bemused look with Seteth before instructing her aide to deploy a battalion of mages specializing in ice magic to address the matter.

Fascinated, Byleth could only watch as they set to work. She never would have thought magic could be used this way and for such a… frivolous reason, but it was hard to argue with the happy faces of those who had gathered to watch.

“They’ll freeze the pond so the ice is thick enough to skate on, but not so thick that it will harm the fish underneath,” Seteth explained. “It’s… not a tradition, necessarily, but it is something we do if there are enough requests for it.”

The ice was determined sufficiently frozen over and deemed safe for ice skating before long. A few priests remained nearby with Rescue spells at the ready if need be.

Bundled up in her winter clothing—complete with a knitted scarf bearing the insignia of the Blue Lions—Byleth opted to watch first. She’d never ice skated before, never knew it was a thing, really, and she didn’t have that strong of an urge to try.

It looked fun, though. The laughter. The way the more experienced students were teaching or supporting those who weren’t. She wondered if she should try. For the sake of experiencing something new, but where would she even begin?

“Are you not going to join in, Professor?”

Dimitri. Out of all the students, of course he would be the one to approach her about that. Although she was a little surprised to see him out here, in all honesty. Lately he’s been spending nearly all his freetime in the training grounds. What happened at Remire Village… It really shook him to the core.

Surprised, but not necessarily upset about it.

“I don’t know how. I’ve never ice skated before,” she confessed.

“Never?” Was that a smile just now? “It’s… well, it’s been a few years for me as well, but it’s like riding a horse… or so I’ve been told. You never really forget.” She had learned long ago that the phrase _a few years_ or anything similar tended to have a very specific connotation when it came to the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus—or at least within the Blue Lions—but there were no darkness clouding Dimitri’s eyes as he continued, “If you like, I can teach you.”

She recalled toy swords and monastery orphans and that made up her mind as much as anything else. “Okay.” That and his headaches, his lack of sleep, and the fact that he seemed to be isolating himself from his friends lately… “Teach me to skate.”

Her quick agreement seemed to surprise him. Like he hadn’t expected her to agree at all, but he recovered quickly with that sweet boyish smile she remembered from their early days before the stakes at the monastery rose to what they were now.

The question of where everyone was getting their skates was answered in the form of Anna. She is the only merchant to carry them, apparently. Because she was simply _that_ prepared for any situation where she could turn a profit. “This happens every year where there’s lots of snow,” she chirped happily.

_Somebody could get seriously hurt by these blades._

It was like wearing weighted boots. Walking in them on the uneven terrain was made awkward by the guards the blades were sheathed in, but her first steps onto the ice itself was a shock in itself. Byleth was only able to stay upright for a few seconds before she had to reach out and grab Dimitri’s arm for balance, nearly causing him to fall himself.

“Sorry,” she said, hastily letting go.

“It’s alright,” he smiled. Once she was certain that she was steady again, he proceeded to slide one foot forward and then the other. “Alright… Let’s see if I can still do this…”

He still could, gliding back and forth a few times before returning to where she stood. Feeling like a newborn fawn, Byleth tried to imitate his actions—only to slip and nearly fall onto her rear. The only reason why she didn’t was because she was able to grab onto Dimitri and his own quick reaction to catching her.

“You know, Professor,” he said and his voice sounded way, way closer to her ear than it should be. “I always wondered if there’s anything you can’t do.”

She found her balance right after. “I am a woman of many talents,” she replied loftily, silently reminding herself that since it was cold, it only made sense that her cheeks would feel a bit funny. “But apparently there _is_ something I can’t do. It looks like today, you are the professor, Dimitri.”

He took her attempt at a joke in stride. “Then… I guess the first thing I would have to teach you is how to fall.”

“Pardon?”

“Everyone falls,” Dimitri explained and right on cue Annette managed to skate into one of the wooden boxes the knights had been using to test the ice thickness earlier with a loud “Aaaargh!” Byleth could hear even from across the pond.

She looked towards Dimitri. If she didn’t know any better, she would have said he timed that intentionally.

“You can reduce the risk of injury if you know how to fall properly,” was all he said.

Mercedes caught up with her friend and helped her back up. Annette was a resilient girl. She’ll be alright. And there was a certain degree of logic in Dimitri’s explanation, so Byleth supposed she could take his word. After all, he’s been dealing with _her_ eccentric teaching methods for over half a year already.

Not that he was making her do this _practice falling_ thing on her own. Byleth was fairly certain that, if she were to look back towards solid ground, she would see Dedue standing among the small gathering of onlookers trying to fight off an oncoming headache.

It should be ridiculous. The two of them, falling onto the ice on purpose and letting themselves get caked in grains of snow, but since he was doing it all with her, it doesn’t really feel that way.

“To stand, you start on your hands and knees, put one knee up and use that to push yourself off the ground.”

 _Easy._ Falling wasn’t so nerve wracking if she knew how to get back up again, right? That was all part of the logic, anyway. She tilted her head to the side, awaiting his next instruction.

And his next instruction was to… skate.

Suddenly, she was nervous again, especially when he began to glide backwards away from her.

“Bend your knees and lean forward.”

She was feeling unsteady again now that she was actually trying to _move_.

“Don’t look at your feet, Professor. Look at me.”

 _That_ was simple enough. Byleth lifted her head, meeting his eyes as she began to slide her feet forward. Right and left… Right and left… After her first near-fall, she had reacted at once, reaching out to grab onto what was closest to her in order to stay upright and that just happened to be him.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, looking down. She thought she heard somebody whistle.

“It’s alright… Would it help if you held my hand?”

It would. She simply kept clutching both his hands tightly and using him as a crutch to stay upright. He made no complaints about the way she is gripping his hands and fingers cannot be the most comfortable thing to endure even with his own superhuman strength taken into account.

The “practice falling” thing ended up being pretty pointless because Dimitri never did let her fall in the first place as they made their way around the perimeter of the pond little by little. Every time it seemed as though she would lose her balance, he would adjust accordingly and help her find it again.

A part of her knew she cannot keep depending on him like so if she wanted to learn how to stay upright on her own two feet, but it was an encouragement to know he was there. Soon enough, she _did_ find herself feeling steadier, better balanced on the thin blades beneath her feet.

“I think I’m getting it.”

He nodded. “Do you want me to let go?”

She looked down at their hands. He was wearing his usual black leather gloves, just without the usual gauntlets, and she was wearing the pair she had bought in preparation for winter. Did she _want_ to let go?

Not really. But it wasn’t a matter of what she wanted though. Byleth pulled her hands back with little resistance and took a deep breath. Okay. She can do this…

Right?

“Don’t worry, Professor,” Dimitri said as though he read her mind. “I’m right here.”

A little bit at a time and then increasing the length of her stride with every success. Dimitri stayed beside her the whole time, giving her enough space to progress at her own pace, but remaining within arms reach in case she needed his help again.

Right. Left. Forward and onward.

“You’re doing great, Professor!”

Byleth couldn’t help but grin upon hearing Annette’s cheer. Sometimes it was difficult to think of her students as _her students_ when they were so close in age. Times like this, it really felt like she was little more than another person, managing to find a little joy in the company of friends in the middle of winter, to take a step back from being the teacher to being the one being taught.

Even if it was something as frivolous as _ice skating._ It was nice to learn a skill that had no uses on the battlefield or wasn’t even all that practical for once. It was… fun. She was learning something just because it was _fun_ , because it was something she could do with those she considered dear to her.

Once she was confident in her gliding, Dimitri proceeded to show her how to stop by pushing the flats of her blades and scraping the ice beneath.

“And that is all there is to it,” he said. “After that it’s just practice.”

Byleth nodded. It all came down to practice sooner or later. “It’s a shame that there won’t be many opportunities,” she admitted. The pond cannot stay frozen forever after all. “Perhaps I should try spending a winter up north for once.”

“Of course,” Dimitri’s smile was strained. “Our winters are harsh, to say the least, but Professor, I…” He sighed, shoulders sagging under the unmeasurable weight of his looming responsibilities. “We’re not Adrestia with all its history and riches, or even the Leicester Alliance, but I wish I had been able to show you the things I love about my homeland first instead of all the unrest that happened this year.”

“It can’t be helped,” She replied, trying to act nonchalant, but it was harder now than it was at the beginning of the year. She never did care too much for the three nations of Fódlan before coming to the monastery. Back then, the kingdom, the empire, the alliance… They were all just arbitrary borders and landmarks on a map to her, but having bonded with her students and learning of their feelings and struggles and thoughts… It was hard to stay detached. “Things will get better once you become king.”

“Thank you,” he smiled gratefully. “I appreciate the thought, and yet…”

_And yet…?_

Dimitri shook his head. “Nevermind, it’s nothing.” _No, it is not nothing._ “Perhaps one day I can give you another lesson, but in Fhirdiad?”

She’s never been to the kingdom’s capital, but she supposed that from the moment she chose to lead the Blue Lions it would only be a matter of time before she would find herself learning the journey herself. “I would like that, Dimitri,” she said. “I really would.”

And there, a sudden childish thought occurred to her. Byleth held up her right hand with her pinky finger extended towards him. “Promise?”

He looked down at her hand and she watched as his eyes darted sideways as though trying to find some kind of escape. But what was it that he needed to escape from? Did she make another mistake, as she often did in social situations?

Feeling a little more dejected than she was willing to admit, Byleth took back her hand. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“No, Professor, it’s…” Dimitri shook his head, hiding away whatever it was that was troubling him before placing a hand on his chest. “If you were to ever come to Fhirdiad during the winter, I promise to show you again how to ice skate. You have my word.”

**Author's Note:**

> My mind has been in a very winter-y place lately, despite it only being October. I love ice skating, but it’s been a few years since I last went myself so I decided to write a little piece ^_^
> 
> I’m not too fond of the way I ended this fic, but there’s potential for a follow up so keep your eye out for that?


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